Family
by Simone Landon
Summary: What is family? Rishid, Mai, Yuugi, Honda, and Thief King Bakura will tell you.


Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! belongs to Kazuki Takahashi.

Playing once again with the Five Things concept. This time, inspired by Alex Dollard's "Five Things - Family" fanfic, which is hosted on the Buffy UCSL site.  
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Rishid Ishtar  
  
His family was broken, and a little mad. Haunted by nightmares about the past, but denying the fact when questioned.  
  
There were nights when Isis would wake up convinced that her dreams had been a vision, and Malik still occasionally spoke to someone that neither of them could see. When these things happened, he took care of them in whatever way seemed best. That was family.  
  
There were days when Isis complemented his cooking as they sat at the table after work, and Malik often called him "brother" again. Rishid was slowly growing used to the small pleasures that these things brought. That was also family.  
  
Family was darkness and obedience, and sometimes pain. But family was also light and fresh air, and an affection that was strange but genuine.

Family was a gift that had unexpectedly been given to him, the abandoned infant, and he treasured it.  
  
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Tozokuou Bakura  
  
His family was dead, and they screamed for revenge. They were joined by many others.  
  
In the cold of the nights, he could just barely hear them. No matter how far he traveled up or down the river, he heard them. They demanded that someone be made to pay for their destruction, that everyone be made to pay, that the blood-stained sand of Kuru Eruna be repeated elsewhere.  
  
They grew louder whenever he remained stationary for too long. They were the reason he constantly put himself into fights where he was outnumbered, and they were the reason that he continued to keep living long after his body had taken too much abuse and died.  
  
Family was faces he couldn't remember, and voices he could never get away from.  
  
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Hiroto Honda  
  
His families were one that he had been born into, and one that he had chosen for himself. They didn't carry equal weight.  
  
He treated his biological family with the respect that he had to. But he firmly believed that blood was an accident, and he didn't make himself any more available to them than a shared surname required. The exception was his sister--he assumed that she meant more to him than the others, because he willingly babysat Johji for her. With no previous notice and no pay, even. That was affection, right there.  
  
His chosen family began with Jounouchi and Shizuka. This meant that he became friends with others through them; and when he got close to those types of friends and became friends with them because he liked them for themselves, not because they were friends of the Jounouchis, it could get confusing. He'd made it simple by deciding that everyone in his chosen family and their friends would fall under his protection--whether he liked them or not--because Shizuka was the cutest girl in the world, and because Yuugi was a good person, and because Bakura really needed someone to look out for him, and because even though he never turned down the chance to make a dig about Jounouchi he would willingly get maimed for the guy. They didn't have to return the same level of feelings; he'd already made his choice.

Family was the people that he cared about over himself.

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Mai Kujaku  
  
Her family was left behind, and she liked it that way. Family had never been important to her.  
  
The house had been so large that it was easy for them to lose track of each other, and so it had been simple to let those childhood habits follow her out into the adult world. Even after she started to become famous, it hadn't inspired any contact from her parents or brother--being known for playing a card game well was not the best reflection on the family name. And that was fine. She didn't need them to congratulate her on her success; they were irrelevant to who she was.  
  
But . . . family _could _be a teenager with hair that hadn't seen a comb in a week, and an irritatingly cocky attitude. And bad fashion sense. And no money. And no table manners, either. Or common sense. And he talked too much. And he had a quirked grin that stayed with her long after he had run off somewhere else.  
  
Family was someone she might have room for, this time.

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Yuugi Mutou  
  
His family was supposed to be the standard extended one, and he couldn't remember ever feeling that they were. But that didn't bother him much.  
  
His father rarely came home more than once a month, and his mother was usually busy with something that didn't include him. He was closer to his grandfather than either of them, and even **then**, he didn't talk to his grandfather as often since he'd started having so many secrets. His family was kind of distant.  
  
His family was also a disembodied spirit that only he could see when they were separate, and a crush who was in love with that spirit, and a couple of reformed street punks, and a guy who they were never totally sure about since he'd tried several times to steal his Puzzle, and another guy who had also tried to take the Puzzle. And, in his own way, a guy who wanted nothing more than to kick his ass in a duel and laugh about it. But at least _he _didn't seem to want the Puzzle.  
  
A lot of his family was composed of former enemies. It sounded weirder than it was, really.  
  
There were lots of other people who he called friends, who he would be glad to help if they were in trouble; but his family was the people who knew the secret, regardless of whether they believed it or not.  
  
Family was the people he trusted with his other self. 


End file.
